Hello PMN members!
It was about a year ago when I decided to pursue a passion and start my own agency (Conversa Marketing) dedicated to helping leading brands understand and embrace social media. And what a year it has been! I’ve been blessed with some great clients and amazing strategic partners and overwhelmed by the support of friends and family who believed in my dream.

In our first year, the PMN and Conversa Marketing surpassed goals that I thought would only be possible in another 2 or 3 years. We grew like crazy, added quickly to our client roster, and hired some of the best people in the business. More importantly, the work we did for our clients at Conversa Marketing was not only innovative but enormously effective. It wasn’t long before I realized we were onto something big and I needed to expand our footprint in order to take advantage of the social CRM (Customer Relationship Management) opportunity before us.

That opportunity is now a reality. Meet ThreadMarketing, StrongMail’s new email and Social CRM agency. ThreadMarketing is a roll-up of the incredible talent I have had the pleasure of working with over the past year. They include the creative talent at Magnetik as well as some additional resources. In the 25 years I have been in the direct and interactive marketing space, I have met few people who have the consistency, creativity and attention to detail as the folks now part of StrongMail’s ThreadMarketing.

So why ThreadMarketing? Today email and social media have become the preferred mediums by which many consumers and brands connect and communicate. “Thread” is really all about creating a bond and continuous conversation. ThreadMarketing was established to help leading brands strengthen this bond and to provide the guidance, creativity and tools necessary to build relationships and drive brand advocacy. It is social CRM in practice -- leveraging the data and insights gained from marketing activities to build more relevant conversations that drive results.

How do we help leading brands? Our approach is guided by a simple, yet powerful framework. ThreadMarketing helps leading brands Listen, Learn, Engage, and Influence key consistencies so they can work smarter not harder. Our key services include strategic consulting, listening and monitoring, proprietary research, segmentation strategy, data collection and surveys, databases and loyalty engine design/development, lifecycle program development, award-winning creative, website development, campaign execution, community management, and innovative loyalty and participatory marketing programs that drive success.

It is an incredibly exciting time for our team here and we are lucky to have a great owner like StrongMail. Having served on the Board of Directors of StrongMail for more than two years, I have had an inside view into the passion, innovation and incredible leadership throughout the company. With a client base of more than 500 blue chip clients like Traveolocity, Wal-Mart, Zappos, Intercontinental Hotels, Tesco and more, we now have a platform that will allow us to scale and scale fast. I’d like to once again thank my clients and strategic partners (Castrol, Alliance Data, Equifax, Modern Media, Steel Media, Radian6, Milyoni, Mindshare and Ogilvy) as well as StrongMail’s Board of Directors for their unyielding support - I have learned an incredible amount from all of you. Special thanks to Rob Krin and Sam Cece who were early believers in me and my dream and my entire team at Conversa Marketing. They took a leap of faith with me and supported my vision and I’m forever grateful. Also special thanks to Mitch, Jackie and Ben Diamond whose business advice, generosity and support I will never forget. Finally – I’d like to thank my incredible wife who has been such an amazing woman and supporter. I’ve yet to meet anyone with more patience. Thanks for listening, supporting and helping me – I love you.

So today we begin a new chapter. Twenty five passionate people (and growing) who are ready to redefine the way marketers Listen, Learn, Engage and Influence. Ready to see how ThreadMarketing can help your brand? Check out the press release and new website.

Best, Michael

According to a recent Mzinga and Babson survey, 84% of professionals worldwide do not currently measure the ROI of their social media efforts. Pretty shocking considering today’s economic environment and the enormous pressures placed on marketers to deliver more with less. However, as is the case with any new medium, many marketers are experimenting with social media and are still, for the most part, trying to figure out how social media fits into their overall marketing efforts. As a result, measurement is often overlooked.

Therefore, when a company creates a unique and interesting program and takes the time to measure its success, it is important to share the inside scope so we can all learn. One interesting example is what Mint.com recently did by combining the power of email marketing with social media.

Launched in 2007, Mint.com has quickly become America’s No. 1 online personal finance service. Mint’s intelligent and easy-to-use approach to money management has quickly attracted more than 1.5 million users to date. Given its online audience and technologically savvy user base, Mint.com recently turned to the power of email marketing and socialized it to further drive new customer acquisition.

So what did they do? Working with StrongMail (disclosure – I currently sit on the board of directors at StrongMail) Mint.com took the time to understand user motivations and tested a series of incentives to encourage existing email subscribers to “invite” others within their social network (email, facebook, twitter, etc.) to join Mint.com. The winning campaign – one that not only encourage the most sharing but drove the most conversions -- appealed to Mint.com’s existing users by providing them “insider status” through access to beta features and products prior to their roll-out to general users. In the end, the campaign drove one new user/customer for every 2.6 invite clicks – impressive. While the testing of various offers was insightful, the ability to drive new users/customers and to tag existing users as “influencers” (based on their sharing activity, conversion rate and desire for insider knowledge) was even more impressive.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Mint.com case study check out my column or you can register for the upcoming DMA/PMN Social Media Spotlight event where StrongMail will be presented the case study in-depth. Details about the event can be found on our website. Space is limited so act now.

‘Til Next Time

Weather has been pounding much of the country over the last few days, canceling hundreds of flights and delaying many more.  If you were one of the millions caught in the mess, I feel your pain. Traveling is not easy, nor is the airline business.  But I often say, it’s not the inevitable weather delays that cause the most frustration -- it’s how an airline chooses to handle the situation and communicate with its customers.  There have been many instances of what not to do, like the infamous JetBlue situation a few years back that uncovered massive holes in their communications capabilities and operations and eventually resulted in JetBlue’s customer bill of rights.  One airline that has impressed me with its communications lately has been American Airlines. 

 

What does American do right?  First – the email communications program has been proactive. Maybe it is because I’m a gold member, or maybe not, but I’ve been surprised to receive apologizes after delays and, in some cases, bonus miles for my trouble – wow.

 

Next – I recently received a phone call from Amercian’s President’s office asking me if there was anything wrong.  What?  When does that ever happen?  You see, I used to do the NY/Dallas route pretty often and that stopped after I left my last employer.  After about 6 months they called asking why they haven’t seen me and if there was anything wrong.  Wow, again! And guess what? When it’s time to book my travel for board meetings out in CA, guess which airline is in the mix? Yup, American.    

 

The latest example of American’s impressive communications program was the Holiday email I received last week.  The email thanked me for my business this year and included a small token of their appreciation, along with 3 wishes for me.  After clicking, I landed on a personalized page which had three cards for Peace, Hope and Joy.  Each included a warm message along with the opportunity to earn bonus miles for donations made to three worthy charities.  Peace included bonus miles for donations made to Operations Care Package.  American Airlines customers have donated over $1.1 million or 50,000 care packages delivered to American’s men and women in uniform as they strive for peach on earth.  Hope included bonus miles for donations made to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, of which American Airlines is the official Airline and their first ever lifetime Promise Partner.  American Airlines customer shave already contributed more than $600,000 this year to the Susan G. Komen for the cure through the Miles for the Cure program.  Last was Joy, to benefit American’s miles for Kids in Need, which helps provide transportation to worldwide for a variety of important children’s causes.  Over the past year, American Airlines’ customers have donated over 30 million unused miles for the cause. 

 

What a great example of a company using email communications to not only thank its most loyal customers for their business, but to also encourage its customers to participate with their brand in a series of worthy causes. A few more good reasons to fly - now that’s the holiday spirit.

Tell us what you think.  Do the airlines get it? 
 

‘Til Next Time